Thursday, May 26, 2016

When I draw bore joints most of the time I will use a little Hot Hide Glue on the pins. Glue is not needed in the joint but the hide glue lubricates the pin and I feel makes the joint go together easier. A long way around to....The lid is together and I'm waiting for the glue to dry so I can trim the pins and clean up the under side of the lid. Once that is done I'll add the dust seal, clean up the top side and do the hinges. Then that sucker will truly be finished and I can move on to other things.

The lid waiting for glue to dry:

I've a couple of days off over the weekend. There are a few Casa Chaos things that need to be done but for the most part I should be a free man as long as I stay out of MsBubba's line of sight.

A new PhillyPlane try plane showed up today, I haven't had time to do much more than unwrap but it looks nice. I expect the iron will take a little time to bring to working condition and it may take a month or two for the shock of the desert to finish doing its thing to the stock. I'm not sure what the UK's RH is but I expect it runs 60% or more most days where here in the Old Pueblo most of the year our RH's are around 10%, only going higher than 20 or 25% during Monsoon season. Stupid wood tricks sure to follow. I haven't checked the bed angle yet but because it is a single iron plane I expect Phil gave it a York pitch. Photos once I have it up and running.

I'm really thinking about dumping most of my metal stock planes, I'll keep one or two #4's a #3 and I expect a couple of #5's but the rest may end up on the block. I need to sleep on it for a couple or three months but......

Monday, May 23, 2016

Going into the day job early evening today, so I had a few minutes to rub together in the shop and the tool box lid needed some love. I had time to cut rebates or at least the X-grain ones. The Panel is Cherry, ended up about15mm thick and needing a 9mm thick tongue set back 10mm. While I have the LV rabbet plane, for a single panel like this a wood rebate plane works just as well and is less monkey motion.

I use marking gauges to make two marks, one for the set back and the other for the depth. For a long rebate like this one I will chisel a "V" groove. Then it is just a matter of riding the groove until you have a shoulder, as my clients would say "A sheet of cake".

First photo is of setting up:

The ECE rebate plane is a sweetheart, light, with a good iron, and it sets and holds well. Even better it doesn't cost much nor does it require work to set up like a vintage plane.

This is of the rebate about half done:

Last photo, testing the fit:

I still have not decided; does the tool box stay a tool box or is it the Grandpeanut's new toy box.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

After all these years of always going back to Ark Oil Stones as my goto honing and finishing stones. These times they are a-changin', I've mostly made the transition to Jnats for honing and finishing. As with all things wood and especially with all things sharpening....YMMV.

When sharpening I try to look past shinny and instead look at the final scratch pattern and the edge produced. Honing and finishing on Jnats give me the best I've been able to see of both and I've been like a country song with sharpening stones, I've danced with most of the pretty girls.

Japanese Natural Stones in addition to having an organic beauty can be very easy to use with less mess and they tend to not be "fussy", not needing flatting as often as synthetic water stones. The biggest problem with Jnats is they can become an addiction with the user always wanting just one more stone...."life would be perfect if only I had that Nakayama Asagi I saw on So's web site". BTW, the Nakayama Asagi from So is in the mail.

My Sharpening Bench set up with Jnats:

From left to right. In the stone pond is a Karashi set up stone. If I had to guess it is about equivalent to a 1000 to 2000 synthetic stone. On the Karashi's right is a Takashima Ooban finish stone. The Takashima is not a very hard stone, from Lv 3.5, but produces a beautiful slightly hazy finish with a very attractive Jigane (the soft iron backing the hard steel). To the right on the bench are two more Jnats. the first on a holder that says 1200 is a Aiiwatani Kiita finish stone that is a little harder than the Takashima. Both the Takashima and the Aiiwatani give a finish much like a 8K to 10K synthetic stone. The last stone is a Tsushima Nagura, it has been painted with a traditional black Cashew Lacquer on all sides and the bottom. Again this is just a WAG, as it is on all the stones, the Tsushima is about a 5K to 8K stone.

The following photo is of three chisels, the two outer chisels were honed and finished on Jnats, the middle chisel was honed and finished on Sigma Power Ceramic stones. You may be able to see the difference in the Jigane between the chisels. The light on the left chisel obscured the Jigane but it is almost exactly the same as the chisel on the right. What you can not see is the scratch pattern, while the Power Ceramic sharpened chisel out shines the Jnats it does not have as fine a scratch pattern.

The Jnats work beautifully on Western chisels as well, here is a AI chisel next to a Japanese chisel both finished on Jnats. IIRC the finish stone was the Takashima Ooban.

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Just a warning, todays post is a journal entry. Before Blogs I kept a journal, not every day but often....Kinda like I Blog. Lately the Blog has been more about woodworking than anything else because I've been doing woodworking more than anything else. On to today's journal entry.

The last three or so weeks can best be described as interesting....And that is where I will stop. I wrote a lot of boring stuff no one but me would care about and it was too boring even for me. The short version: The last three weeks have been spent dealing with a series of un-related health issues. None of which were serious but enough to keep me from working. As a list: Type 2 diabetes, passing a Kidney stone, Tearing my right biceps tendon, and last a week of bronchitis that has kicked my butt.

I've a journal entry so a couple years down the road and I try to remember when and what happened I can see a date and a list.

Maybe something on the tool chest lid or another tour of the shop in the next post, hell even a post on sharpening would be more interesting. Whatever, some bright object will catch my eye.

BTW, the 'Wing is in the shop, I figure with my soon going part time I might have time to do a couple of RTE's. The Dirty Fat Girl may run TBMRITS (I-10) once more.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

No photos because, who knows....The stock for the tool chest lid had been setting on the end of the main work bench for a couple of days waiting for me to finish moving the shop fixtures around and making room on the benches to work.

I'd marked the stock out several days ago so all that was needed was room and setting up to start chopping the four mortises. I decided on 3/8" mortises mostly for two reasons, the mortises were going to be 50mm deep and I find a deep 1/4" mortise a real PITA to chop. May be technique but there is a big difference between chopping a 1/4" vs. 3/8" mortise. The only problem was the rails are not quite 4/4 leaving the cheeks a little thin. BTW, the rails are Cherry......I bet you can see what's coming from a mile away.

Sure 'nuff about 40mm into a 50mm mortise, the last of the four needed, the cheek split. I must have looked at it for five minutes working my way through the 5 stages of grief before the first "fuck" followed by several more. After finishing the required cursing and then looking at the split, it wasn't in an area of high stress and it was clean and attached, I opened it up, squirted some glue in the gap, clamped that sucker down, and went to Costco to graze on the free samples and to pick up something for dinner.

When I took the clamp off this morning, even knowing where the split is, I can't see it. Once coffee time, scratching doggy butt, and getting Msbubba out the door is done, I'll carefully remove the last 10mm of the mortise and then start on the tenons.

Sunday, May 08, 2016

One of the reasons for the marking gauge post the other day was I needed to move some of the shop fixtures around to make room for the new tool chest. Today was the day.

I had plans to make all new fixtures, even picked up some Cherry "shorts" at a shop fixture price to do the job but as I looked and measured I figured out that the old fixtures would work with just a little rearranging. Faster than a speeding bullet I was on it before I could change my mind.

Here are some photos of the rearranged shop:

The east wall from the working end of the main bench. Not much, if anything has changed on this side. On the sharpening bench the left end is used for Ark oil stones, the right for the Jnats.

The north wall from the back side of the main bench. The saw till is in much the same position but just a thin one lower. The plane till moved from the right to the left and much lower. The chisel till stayed on the right but is raised enough to fit under the tool chest lid (once finished). and the junk cabinet was moved high to the right. You can see where the red tool chest will live.

The northwest wall now has the Plano Vertical Panel clamp mounted. One of the wall cabinets was removed. the other moved to the west wall and higher, and the shelf and chisel rack were shortened.

No matter how much I squint it is still too much stuff. No matter how much I move it around it is too much stuff. I am working to cull but even that is slow because it is either throw it away if you want to be shed quickly or it will move out very slowly if you want to find a good home. I'm in the slow phase for now but the throw it in the trash-give to Goodwill is looking better all the time.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

In my endless quest to put 10 lbs of stuff into a 5 lb shop, I spent the day rearranging the deck chairs. How's that for mixing metaphors?

I needed to clean out an area at the right end of the secondary work bench so the wall can be used to mount the Plano Vertical Panel Press. That required removing a couple of wall cabinets and re-installing one of them. In turn the cabinet install required cutting down the length of a couple of shelfs used for chisel and plane storage. Not to bore you but you should get the picture, moving one thing required moving two others which in turn required emptying and moving four other storage areas.

In the moving of storage units I found a number of marking gauges that had been squirreled away for various reasons. Ended up being close to thirty of 'em, most of which had been put away because I found them lacking in some way. Many because the fence and stem would not lock at 90 degrees. BTW, I posted about the marking gauges on SMC earlier.

Anyway here's a photo of the herd, the most used ones are near the rear:

A photo that may show what I'm talking about. I pulled three example marking gauges out of the pile. One was my goto kinda high dollar Marples combination gauge, next was a cheap as you can buy Marples combination gauge, and last was a pretty high dollar marking gauge from one of the better woodworking retailers.

Pay no attention to that round blue thing at the bottom but from left to right the better Marples, the cheap Marples, and the not very cheap gauge. The lines were made by locking the stem then putting fairly light pressure left and knifing a line followed by approximately the same pressure right and making a knife line. The right two knife lines diverge at about 2 degrees.

Is it easy to fix? Yep, all the maker has to do is pay attention to where the locking screw pushes the stem.

As always YMMV and does it make a big whoop, not really just me being cranky but one thing I hate is a marking gauge fence that wiggles once locked. Even it there is no chance of it moving fore or aft the wiggle bugs the hell out of me.

Monday, May 02, 2016

It seems I've spent my life riding on the short bus, tilting my head like a dog looking for a treat, and being the last to know something. It's happened again.

A year or so ago I did my teenager rebel against getting old and said no mas, no mas to watching my diet.....If I die so be it....I can't takes it no more, and went on a binge of eating and drinking just what I wanted when I wanted it....Damn life was good. Except I went from around 200 lbs (about 30 lbs over weight) to 240 lbs. Damn Bubba you are fat, your "fat" pants are tight and you haven't seen the equipment in months. Bottom line, about a month ago it's back on low carbs, forgoing my loved beans and cornbread, tacos, and any thing else that is good including beer and whisky.

Life sucks.

MsBubba to the rescue. Yesterday while surfing the web she came across an article that said: "Whisky has no carbs", the skies are blue once more, the birds are singing, and there is a rainbow on the horizon.

Of the two, booze or food, I would pick food any day but one is a hell of a lot better than none. BTW, maybe I enjoyed the new found freedom a little much last night but that 12 year old Macallan was sure smooth going down.

Other than a boozy afternoon I did get a little done in the shop. The Cherry shorts for the tool box lid have not showed. It's not a big deal, I can make and fit the lid with the box loaded, so that is what I did. The big advantages of loading the box are twofold: I get it out of the middle of the shop and placed where it will stay and I get most of the tools moved to their new place so I can move forward on making 10 lbs of stuff fit into a 5 lb shop.

I did not clean up the interior of the box, all the joinery markings are still there, I did not plane or sand either the inside or outside of the trays and dividers, or the inside of the box. I figure in a 100 years or so if, and it is a big if, it doesn't become a toy box per Bob then folks looking at it might enjoy seeing the tool marks and the marking out of the box and joints.

I expect the "load" will change many times but here is the first load. Top drawer mostly things used daily and/or normally found on the workbench. Second drawer most of my joinery planes and tools. Back side of case H&R's with molding planes, middle wood stock bench planes, front wall will have a chisel rack and saw till. All subject to change often.

Some photos:

From the side with both drawers open.

The front with both drawers open.

The front with drawers closed to the rear and some toes.

The front with drawers closed forward and a red belly.

Not too bad considering how life gets in the way. Looking back I started the tool box build around the first of March, so a couple or three months for the build. I can live with that.

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About Me

I’m an Ok guy. I’m a political junky, I work wood, cook, paint (not much lately), do photography, write about art,life, motorcycles, and wood. I fly airplanes for a living. For a guy that grew up on a West Texas dirt farm in the 40’s and 50’s, I’m OK. I don’t have much use for normal male activities like hunting and sports although I can scratch and ogle with the best of ‘em. I know which fork to use most of the time, I don’t say fuck unless it’s needed and for the most part I can get along in polite society. I’ve seen more of the world than most people have and I think I can say things about it that may be interesting.